The F1 U.S. Grand Prix is "definitely on" for this October at Austin's Circuit of the Americas, but its future "still could be tenuous if the track’s owners can’t increase how much money the event generates to qualify" for a $25M annual payment from the state, according to a front-page piece by Suzanne Halliburton of the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. COTA Chair & CEO Bobby Epstein said, "This year’s event will restore funding to the level we need. If we’re wrong, it’s a bad miscalculation and I can’t assure you it’s going to go forward.” Halliburton notes to make the race and accompanying festival "more attractive," Taylor Swift will perform a post-race concert. Officials also are "making significant changes to the track as well as lowering prices for tickets, parking and food." With attendance dropping in past years -- three-day attendance for '15 was 224,011, which was down from the '14 attendance of 237,406 -- last year’s three-day race weekend "has been described as a financial disaster." Heavy rains last year "turned many of the circuit’s unpaved parking lots into unusable mud holes," and fans "stood in long lines to wait for an overwhelmed shuttle system." For this year's event, Epstein said that COTA will "upgrade the parking lots and pave many of the areas around the track." He announced that ticketholders will receive a 105% "refund if it rains more than two inches within 24 hours of the event." Epstein also said that "no one will be forced to wait more than 55 minutes for a shuttle." He added that ticket prices, on average, will drop by 10%, with parking decreasing by 30% (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 3/10). Epstein said the race is "going to be here for a long time," adding the combination of Swift and F1 will help "sell every ticket that we've got" (LONDON TIMES, 3/10).
